Every time that I walk into a Walmart wearing my $13.99 Wrangler jeans, I am welcomed with the bright white fluorescent lights that resemble a surgical room, blue labels hanging from ceilings giving organization for my every desire, and prices that no other retailer can beat. What could be better?
Walmart takes plenty of flak however, especially when there are so-called classier stores like Target just across the street. What I can’t wrap my head around is the lack of respect that is directed towards a Walmart shopper for his or her choices in purchases.
Any item that you can purchase or conceivably imagine from a variety of stores, Walmart carries: gadgets, pet supplies, holiday decorations, groceries, clothing, and seemingly ridiculous and unnecessary items such as Duck Dynasty “role playing beards” or campfire color changing powder. What more could one ask for? All of life’s essentials are offered in one blue-themed super power that collectively employs almost as many people as our military.
Walmart obviously has the lowest prices. It has the secret weapon that is price matching. You find a juicer at Bed Bath and Beyond for sale and you just aren’t ready yet to kick off the New Years juice cleanse resolution, no worries at all. As long as you can find an ad (even on a smartphone) for the Bed Bath and Beyond juicer, Walmart will lower the price to meet the competitors. They will quite literally beat any price that you throw at it, creating a motivation to have THE lowest prices.
As a consumer I do not support the unequal wages between men and women, nor do I agree with poor business practices that I learned of through reading the book The Wal-Mart Effect.
I don’t like it one bit, but unfortunately it is the world that we live in. Americans desire products sold at large corporate markets in which items are inexpensive. In those types of businesses, people are bound to be mistreated. I, for one, respect anybody willing to work for such a large corporation and anyone willing to put in time to move up the ranks, especially at Walmart.
Any Target snob will throw out the argument that they “Hate the organization of Walmart!” or “Only trashy people shop there for cheap products.” Target is by no means the best organized either. If you can grow up and take the bull by the horns, learning the lay of the land when you walk into a Walmart can be very rewarding.
I’m sure many people have seen emails filled with pictures of “typical Walmart shoppers” with their leopard print sweatpants hanging at the butt crack where a plumber might wear his Wrangler jeans. As a Walmart shopper, I personally get a kick out of those pictures. Walmart is full of all walks of life and it’s a melting pot for shoppers to unite and save a little bit of money.
Give it a chance. Just try to see the wonderful world of savings at Walmart; you might like how much your pockets stay full of hard-earned money. And if not, that’s fine – more Wranglers and Duck Dynasty Beards for me.